Ex-Civil Servant Olly Robbins To Sue Over Sacking

The former top civil servant Olly Robbins has launched a legal challenge over his sacking by Keir Starmer.

The former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office was fired during the scandal surrounding Peter Mandelson’s appointment as the UK’s ambassador to the US.

It emerged in April this year that Robbins had not told ministers of vetting officials’ concerns about giving Mandelson the top job back in early 2025.

As the top civil servant in the Foreign Office at the time, Robbins still gave the then-Labour peer top security clearance, paving the way for him to become the Washington attache.

Amid heightened scrutiny around the vetting process, Starmer was quick to lay the blame at Robbins’ feet.

The prime minister told the Commons it “beggars belief” he was not told that Mandelson had not been cleared by UK Security Vetting before being appointed the UK’s ambassador to Washington.

He claimed there was nothing which would have stopped Robbins from telling ministers about security worries around Mandelson.

The PM said Robbins had therefore lost his confidence and was to be sacked.

The former civil servant has since claimed he was legally prevented from offering further details about the vetting.

According to the FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, Robbins is now requesting a judicial review of Starmer’s decision, claiming it was “unlawful” and “unreasonable”.

The FDA said Robbins’ sacking was “based on a grievous misunderstanding of how the National Security Vetting system worked and a rash response to a media story”.

He also argued that Starmer “has no statutory authority to dismiss the Head of the Diplomatic Service” and there was “no fair procedure involved in his dismissal”.

Robbins claims he was under an “obligation” not to reveal the results of the vetting process with ministers.

He wrote in a statement: “I bring this action reluctantly. It would have been unnecessary if the prime minister had simply apologised for his mistake and made amends for the distress and cost it has caused me and my family.

“Instead, I now have to ask the courts to determine that the prime minister’s decisions were unlawful, unreasonable and to quash them.”

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